Admittedly, I am fairly anti-baby in general, but even so, I do not think it would be beneficial to be pregnant 1L or taking care of a newborn/toddler later in law school. Like earlier posters have said, being under so much stress while pregnant will not be good for you or the child. Chronic stress could make you sick much easier and could really affect the health of the fetus and a newborn.

I was advise on this forum that a long-distance relationship along with the stress of law school alone could be enough to ruin my marriage. Many of my friends have been pregnant in the last year, and that stress and having a newborn by themselves have been enough to to visibly strain their marriages. A pregnancy then child with law school? That would be enough to test any relationship to the limit.

And OP wants to go to a T5? Most people would do almost anything to get into a T5 let alone do well in one, but they will not have the distraction of a pregnancy. As others have said, it can be done, but it doesn't seem that many will do it well. Unless there is some health risk, have your child at a point in your life where you can enjoy and appreciate your child growing up.

oh, wow. I missed the part about the top 5. In an effort to be diplomatic and somewhat helpful, I'm not going to describe what I think of this plan.

Draper: 100% serious, here's what you need to do. Contact NYU or Columbia or whoever it is you're planning on attending. Call the admissions office and ask if they have any students with infants or toddlers that you could talk to (n.b. misplaced modifier - ideally you'd end up talking to the students, not the toddlers). The admissions office can hook you up with somebody who will be able to give you far more insight than our little motley [strike]crue[/strike] crew can.

oh, wow. I missed the part about the top 5. In an effort to be diplomatic and somewhat helpful, I'm not going to describe what I think of this plan.

Draper: 100% serious, here's what you need to do. Contact NYU or Columbia or whoever it is you're planning on attending. Call the admissions office and ask if they have any students with infants or toddlers that you could talk to (n.b. misplaced modifier - ideally you'd end up talking to the students, not the toddlers). The admissions office can hook you up with somebody who will be able to give you far more insight than our little motley [strike]crue[/strike] crew can.

Definitely an interesting idea. Thanks.

Regarding the T5 issue though - I'd think this would all be made easier by the T5 factor because theoretically I wouldn't have to do as well to get a good job.

oh, wow. I missed the part about the top 5. In an effort to be diplomatic and somewhat helpful, I'm not going to describe what I think of this plan.

Draper: 100% serious, here's what you need to do. Contact NYU or Columbia or whoever it is you're planning on attending. Call the admissions office and ask if they have any students with infants or toddlers that you could talk to (n.b. misplaced modifier - ideally you'd end up talking to the students, not the toddlers). The admissions office can hook you up with somebody who will be able to give you far more insight than our little motley [strike]crue[/strike] crew can.

Definitely an interesting idea. Thanks.

Regarding the T5 issue though - I'd think this would all be made easier by the T5 factor because theoretically I wouldn't have to do as well to get a good job.

mrsdraper wrote:Regarding the T5 issue though - I'd think this would all be made easier by the T5 factor because theoretically I wouldn't have to do as well to get a good job.

Would you mind giving us more insight as to what your husband does and why you want to have a baby so young?

I think if we knew the situation you and your husband are in, we might be able to give more informed options. I'd personally think this plan would be much more successful if your husband was in a position to work from home or pay for childcare services as you swim about in debt

It's not uncommon. I'm a bit older than the typical student, so I contacted the school I'm leaning toward and asked if they could hook me up with some older students. They were happy to help and got back to me in a couple of days with a list.

Regarding the T5 issue though - I'd think this would all be made easier by the T5 factor because theoretically I wouldn't have to do as well to get a good job.

OTOH, even the average student may have to study two more hours per day at t5 vs t15. But I don't know, I'm totally making that up. So I guess it could go either way. The real advantage I see you having with t5 is that if you delay employment for a couple of years to tend to baby, your t5 degree won't get stale to the extent that another degree would.

Adopt a child. You still get the child but without the hassle of having to push it through your vagina. You also get to save some poor fucker from having to grow up an orphan, and possibly avert that same poor fucker from robbing your house in order to feed a crack habit. Its a win-win situation. /I know it sound like I'm being facetious, but I'm serious.//really///slashies

Mr. Pablo wrote:Adopt a child. You still get the child but without the hassle of having to push it through your vagina. You also get to save some poor fucker from having to grow up an orphan, and possibly avert that same poor fucker from robbing your house in order to feed a crack habit. Its a win-win situation. /I know it sound like I'm being facetious, but I'm serious.//really///slashies

you sound just like my ex boyfriend. but with better spelling. I really hope he's not considering law school again...

Mr. Pablo wrote:Adopt a child. You still get the child but without the hassle of having to push it through your vagina. You also get to save some poor fucker from having to grow up an orphan, and possibly avert that same poor fucker from robbing your house in order to feed a crack habit. Its a win-win situation. /I know it sound like I'm being facetious, but I'm serious.//really///slashies

awesome. convenience adoptions. I hear Haitian orphans are all the rage these days.

Mr. Pablo wrote:Adopt a child. You still get the child but without the hassle of having to push it through your vagina. You also get to save some poor fucker from having to grow up an orphan, and possibly avert that same poor fucker from robbing your house in order to feed a crack habit. Its a win-win situation. /I know it sound like I'm being facetious, but I'm serious.//really///slashies

awesome. convenience adoptions. I hear Haitian orphans are all the rage these days.

Developing a collection of small brown people in general seems to be popular among law professors these days.

I do think it will be difficult, but honestly I think an infant will be easier to care for while in law school than a toddler or preschooler. And there really is no "right time." For a lot of people pregnancy just happens unexpectedly and it works out.

I had my son while in high school and then I had my daughter while an undergrad at UC Berkeley. I will be we a 1L next year at Boalt with a 2.5 and a 5 year old. There are plenty of stories of people who were in similar circumstances and succeeded so obviously it is possible, but did they plan it that way? Probably not. But if you do go through with it you should be thinking about when you want to give birth and start looking for childcare arrangements already.

I was having a conversation about this and something good came up: discrimination against mothers of young kids.

Say you are pregnant during an interview or during you SA position. You know how easy it would be for them to no-offer you and just say you did a crappy job!? Very ... They are allowed to discriminate against you for being preggers, they just can't say so. Lawyers at Big firms will just talk their way out of it.

Mattalones wrote:I was having a conversation about this and something good came up: discrimination against mothers of young kids.

Say you are pregnant during an interview or during you SA position. You know how easy it would be for them to no-offer you and just say you did a crappy job!? Very ... They are allowed to discriminate against you for being preggers, they just can't say so. Lawyers at Big firms will just talk their way out of it.

Does the ADA cover pregnancies? If not, what legislation makes it illegal? There was just a case on TV here a couple of months ago where a bartender was laid off for being pregnant. The owner reinstated the girl after bad publicity. I didn't think anyone said it was illegal though. It is not illegal to discriminate by weight or appearance if you can prove that it has negative effect on the job you are expected to perform. Pregnancy is a stretch but maybe it is ok if you can explain it?

Mattalones wrote:I was having a conversation about this and something good came up: discrimination against mothers of young kids.

Say you are pregnant during an interview or during you SA position. You know how easy it would be for them to no-offer you and just say you did a crappy job!? Very ... They are allowed to discriminate against you for being preggers, they just can't say so. Lawyers at Big firms will just talk their way out of it.

Does the ADA cover pregnancies? If not, what legislation makes it illegal? There was just a case on TV here a couple of months ago where a bartender was laid off for being pregnant. The owner reinstated the girl after bad publicity. I didn't think anyone said it was illegal though. It is not illegal to discriminate by weight or appearance if you can prove that it has negative effect on the job you are expected to perform. Pregnancy is a stretch but maybe it is ok if you can explain it?

So you are saying if a pregnant women wants to apply to a job as a miner, or jackhammer operator, or construction worker, or someone who has to deadlift 50lbs as part of the job, etc. you have no grounds to not hire her becuase of her condition of being pregnant? It seems to state that in the link. What if your pregnancy directly prevent you to fullfill the job responsibilities?

r6_philly wrote:Title VII doesn't cover business with less than 15 employees. So a bar would fall into the exemption. So would a small law firm. So it is only illegal for SOME employers.

I was speaking generally in the context of this thread and the OP who is going to a T5 and is most likely to be concerned with potential issues at OCI and/or her SA. Not a job search at a tiny bar (I'd guess most bars have more than 15 employees, but I don't have a source for that) or a firm with <15 lawyers.

r6_philly wrote:So you are saying if a pregnant women wants to apply to a job as a miner, or jackhammer operator, or construction worker, or someone who has to deadlift 50lbs as part of the job, etc. you have no grounds to not hire her becuase of her condition of being pregnant? It seems to state that in the link. What if your pregnancy directly prevent you to fullfill the job responsibilities?

Then it would be an issue of your ability to perform the responsibilities, not of being pregnant per se. IIRC: Employers are entitled to set job requirements like being able to lift certain amounts of weight, etc, even if such requirements end up having a disparate impact on who gets ruled out of the job. However, the requirement must in fact be directly relevant to the job (I forget the exact standard the employer must meet on this issue).